Pawnshop manager John Bialkoski's store was struck by serial burglars who entered through the roof and took 10 rifles.

Pawnshop manager John Bialkoski's store was struck by serial burglars who entered through the roof and took 10 rifles.

Photo: Cody Duty

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Securing a gun with a cable lock through the trigger guard is no deterrant to burglars, as some gun stores in the Houston area discovered a few months ago.

Securing a gun with a cable lock through the trigger guard is no deterrant to burglars, as some gun stores in the Houston area discovered a few months ago.

Photo: Cody Duty

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Stolen guns nurture deadly violence

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Cabdrivers Mohammed Elsayed and Blaise Nwokenaka, shot dead by the last passengers of their lives, were killed with a .380-caliber Cobra pistol - a gun stolen just 20 days earlier.

Nineteen-year-old Shanetria Grogan was slain by her ex-boyfriend, shot in the head with a .380-caliber Jimenez Arms semi-automatic pistol, also stolen. And 23-year-old Leroy Pierson, killed in a drug deal gone bad, suffered a fatal wound from a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol, yet one more ripped-off weapon.

At least 32,000 guns, some 4,000 every year, have been stolen from Houston-area homes, cars, pawn shops and even gun dealers since 2005, with only 7 percent of them ever recovered, a Houston Chronicle analysis shows.

In a state where guns are as plentiful and popular as pickups, the stolen weapons further fuel violent crime across the region.

The Chronicle tracked stolen weapons to at least 19 local murder cases by linking serial numbers found on burglary reports to a database of guns that have been found at crime scenes or confiscated. There likely are many more, but records are too incomplete.

Among the most favored of stolen weapons are semi-automatic pistols, revolvers, shotguns and semi-automatic assault rifles.

'Across the border'

"They could be still out on the street. They could be in criminals' hands. They just haven't been recovered. In other words, not all criminals will throw a gun down after they committed a crime and run off," said Franceska Perot, spokeswoman for the Houston Field office of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

"Houston is so close to Mexico, we do have guns that go to Mexico. So there could be people stealing guns and taking them across the border," said Perot.

Just this past January, 274 guns were lost in a series of gun and pawn shop burglaries in Harris County. Officials describe the heists as well-orchestrated and involving as many as seven people in a highly organized crime ring.

"They probably knew we had guns and had come in before," said John Bialkoski, the store manager of People's Pawn, one of those plundered by the serial burglars, who came in through the roof and took 10 rifles.

Computerized record

Like other burglarized items, stolen guns are entered into the National Crime Information Center, a computerized index of criminal histories, fugitives, stolen properties, or missing persons, accessible to law enforcement agencies across the country.

More than 2.9 million guns nationwide currently are flagged by police as having been stolen or recovered. Of those, 319,570 came from Texas, according to the FBI.

Terry and Charles McQueen lost 18 shotguns, eight rifles and four pistols when their home near Memorial Park was burglarized in 2008.

Charles McQueen, an avid hunter, lost four double-barreled shotguns specially made in Spain that cost him at least $11,000 each.

Seven police officers came to investigate the burglary and plugged in the weapons' serial numbers in the NCIC.

Four years later, not one has shown up.

"We had serial numbers on every single gun. It is surprising. You would think at least one would pop its head up," said Terry McQueen.

The couple visited pawn shops and even searched Craigslist or eBay to no avail. Police suspect the guns were transported outside of Houston, possibly to Atlanta or New Orleans, the couple said.

But unless stolen guns show up in legitimate venues or are recovered from crimes, their whereabouts remain a mystery.

"HPD is committed to reducing the numbers of guns on our streets. It's a daunting task in a city of more than 2 million residents. We arrest more than 100,000 individuals every year," said a statement from HPD spokesman John Cannon. "A number of them are wanted on crimes committed with guns."

Few cases solved

Of the cases reported to Houston police involving stolen guns taken in robberies and burglaries, authorities identified suspects or made arrests in about 8 percent of the incidents.

Most of the culprits had histories of drug possession or burglary offenses, according to court records.

Experts say the thievery, many times committed by professional burglars and robbers, often is fueled by drug addiction and the fact the weapons can be easily sold on the street.

"They do the quick burglaries because they think they can support their habit," said Perot.

The two Houston cabdrivers are believed to have been killed by Chaz Blackshear and his girlfriend Danielle Hudson, both with drug possession history, described by police as the "would-be Bonnie and Clyde."

They are accused of first killing Elsayed and dumping the body in a drainage ditch in Acres Homes. Forty-eight hours, a second body, half burned inside a cab, was found in an office parking lot on Overbrook near Old Westheimer Road. Evidence shows Nwokenaka was summoned to the same Chevron gas station at Whittington and South Dairy Ashford.

Special cartridge

The shell casing could only be tied to one type of special .380-caliber cartridge. Police linked it to a theft 20 days earlier when a homeowner reported the Cobra pistol missing after he kicked two friends out of his house.

"He (homeowner) did a great thing by making that report. It probably stopped what would have been a crime wave after intervening with these folks," said HPD homicide detective Sgt. Brian Harris.

In the case of 19-year-old Grogan, her ex-boyfriend Samuel Jefferson turned himself in to the police and surrendered the semi-automatic pistol stolen in 2008.

Pierson's killer, 25-year-old Thomas Young, was convicted of murder, though it is unclear how he acquired the stolen gun.

Licensed dealers

Police suggest gun owners make purchases from federally licensed gun dealers, which ensures the gun has a clean history.

Equally important is to keep a record of the serial numbers and make a report if the gun is stolen.

HPD says the department returned about 900 recovered guns to owners in 2010 and 1,000 in 2011, though authorities did not specify in which years they were stolen.

"We would encourage you to make the report because that little report can reveal something later on while in the hunt of a homicide investigation or something greater," said Harris.